


One Week

by spowell Count Dracula series (SPowell)



Series: Count Dracula [45]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, Vampires, Werewolves, dark!fic, evil!Leon, evil!Merlin, other creatures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-04
Updated: 2015-01-04
Packaged: 2018-03-05 09:06:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3114164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SPowell/pseuds/spowell%20Count%20Dracula%20series
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The de Bois pay a visit to Castle Lubita.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Week

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome lurkers and all others! Thank you for commenting.

Arthur shuddered when he saw his mother standing in the entryway to the great hall. She looked exactly as he remembered last seeing her, which had not been on her sick bed, he now realised. He had been away at school when he learned his mother took ill with the fever and died. If he’d been more observant as a teen, he would have realised that she’d never aged since the day he was born.

She was of medium height and fine boned, her golden hair streamed down her back, and she looked at Arthur with eyes like his.

“Arthur,” she nodded her head at him.

“Mother,” he responded.

“My brothers were right; it is obvious you have had the bite. You look well—you are a man now.”

Her brothers stood one to each side of her. Agravaine was a burly man with a mess of dark hair and blunt features. Tristan was younger than both, lithe, dark, and handsome.

“I have no desire to go with you,” Arthur said bluntly, wrapping his hand around Dracula’s and entwining their fingers.

Ygraine simply stared, unperturbed. It disturbed Arthur—as though she could make him go whether he wanted it or not.

“Please, be seated,” the Count said, tugging his hand from Arthur’s and wrapping it about Arthur’s waist, aligning their bodies.

Ygraine sat regally on a chair, back straight and stiff, and her brothers sat at each side of the roaring fire. On a table were piled the books with information about the ritual.

“We are family, Arthur. It pleased me to find out that you had turned.” Ygraine’s eyes never left her son, and Arthur grew more uncomfortable in her presence. If not for Dracula’s arm about Arthur’s waist, Arthur thought he might bolt from the room.

“I have not turned completely.”

“I always wanted us to be together,” Ygraine said, as though Arthur had not spoken. “Your father would not allow me to bite you.”

“Where is my father? Is he still alive?” Arthur asked.

“I have heard he is dead. I have not seen him since I left.”

“Is he a vampire, too?”

She laughed. “If only he were. No. He is a half-breed, of sorts. His father was a Vrykolakas, his mother a human. I suspect that is why you have not turned completely, Arthur. Your father did not wish you to join the ranks of the undead. He preferred to live as a human, and he wanted that for you, too.”

Arthur looked to Dracula for explanation.

“A Vrykolakas is a vampire of sorts, only they don’t drink blood,” the Count told him. “That does explain much.”

“So you see, Count Dracula,” Ygraine said, narrowing her eyes at him, “Arthur’s differences are not proof that he is your…blood-mate.” She pronounced the term with a derisive sneer.

“Arthur will only drink my blood,” Dracula reminded her, for of course she had been informed of this by Agravaine.

“Because that is the only blood he’s been given. You have trained him to take it. His lack of fangs also taints his drive to suck.”

Arthur began to feel sick. What if she was right?

“His human genes also explain why he is not repelled by the daylight,” Agravaine added.

“And perhaps why he has not become pregnant,” Ygraine’s smile was vicious. “I’m sure you’ve had your cock in him plenty of times.”

Arthur looked to Dracula. He could see the outline of his lover’s cock in his trousers, the ring securely at its base.

“I rather think it’s because we haven’t performed the ritual of conception for blood-mates,” Dracula told her.

For the first time, Ygraine looked slightly thrown.

Tristan leaned forward. “I have heard of this. Blood-mates have to perform the ritual in order to conceive.”

Arthur raised a brow. He hadn’t known that they _had_ to perform it.

Dracula nodded.

“But it can only be performed by true blood-mates,” Tristan continued. “If the participants are not…”

“They die,” Ygraine finished, face stiff. “I will not have Arthur sacrificed for your delusions.”

“You have no choice!” Arthur said.

“Arthur,” Ygraine’s voice softened slightly. “He has lied to you, told you romantic stories about blood-mates, when all that has really happened here is that he’s bitten you and fallen in love with your arse. We are your family, and you belong with us. You are a de Bois.”

“I am a Pendragon and a Dracula,” Arthur said flatly and felt Dracula’s arm tighten about his waist. “We have found writings about the ritual—they are there, in front of you. We invite you to read. We will perform the ritual at the full moon, which will fall in a week’s time.”

Dracula nodded once. “Until then, you are invited to be our guests here at Castle Lubita.”

Ygraine looked at her brothers in turn.

“We could just take you, Arthur, as is our right.”

“It is not your right to take my blood-mate,” Dracula snarled. “You must prove he is not, to be fair.”

“You must prove he is!” Ygraine stood.

“And I will. The ritual will prove it.”

“But if I am right, and he is not, my son will be dead! What kind of fairness is that?”

There was a standoff.

“What if,” Tristan got to his feet, “Arthur agrees to come with us for the week before the full moon? We will return with him for the ritual. That way, if Ygraine is correct, she will at least have a week with her son before he is sacrificed.”

Arthur felt the Count’s fingers digging into his side.

“He is not being _sacrificed_ , but…It is Arthur’s choice,” he let Arthur go.

Arthur looked long and hard at his mother. If she was right and the Count was wrong, Arthur would miss out on his last days with his lover. However, Arthur had to believe that the Count was correct and they were blood-mates. Their replenishing blood in particular was a great sign of it. Arthur would throw that in his mother’s face, if he wasn’t sure she would come up with some feeble reason for the occurrence. Arthur had found time to study the tapestries the night before, and there was no doubt they depicted a blond blood-mate for Dracula, which further strengthened the argument.

“I will go with her,” he finally said, “and give her this week. It will be her last with me.” He turned to the Count, whose sad eyes were like a knife to Arthur’s heart. “And then I will return to you, A Mea, and you will breed me, and we will be a family.” He leaned in and kissed Dracula will all the feeling he had for him, forgetting there were others in the room, or indeed in all the world, but the two of them.

 


End file.
